Fantastic Game Review - Dungeon Command

The very first time I played HeroScape, I knew it was something special. It was a glorious combination of toys and excellent game design, with great plastic miniatures, modular terrain and simple rules that provided incredible depth in terms of strategy and tactics. I mention this because I just played Dungeon Command, and immediately thought of HeroScape - because once again, I've played something special. So for the rest of this review, I'll be...

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Board Game Review - Abaddon

Remember the early 90's? They were mostly kind of gross, with music predominately made by people who were about to kill themselves, but the games in the early 90's were actually pretty awesome. There was an incongruous mix of excellent plastic and oddly cheap cardboard, rules that were simple enough for a twelve-year-old to follow, and pictures of junior-high kids celebrating their Bat Mitvahs on the back of the box (they may have been celebrating...

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Card Game Review - Cthulhu Fluxx

Looney Labs needs to have a contest to decide on a theme for their next Fluxx game. They pop out one of these broken record card games about every six months, and they've based them on everything from alien invasions to smoking reefer. What they really need to do, to mix it up and make it interesting, is come up with a version so fresh and original that people the world over stop and go, 'hey, that is fresh and original, and not all the same freaking...

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Board Game Review - Fury of Dracula

Dracula is pissed. I mean, he's royally tweaked off. You might go so far as to say he's furious.And why is the master of darkness so cranky? Well, a few years back, somebody shoved a wood pole through his chest while he was sleeping. That's enough to ruin your day. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the old fart who was holding the spike was getting an assist from the chick Dracula was trying to bang. He had this dame all picked out, and then she...

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Party Game Review - The Big Bang Theory

Here are two things I do not like:1. Apples to Apples. It's a dumb game.2. The Big Bang Theory. I know lots of people are apey for this TV show, but I am not one of them.Given that I do not like either of those things, it might seem pretty obvious that if you took Apples to Apples and replaced all the cards with stuff from The Big Bang Theory, I would not like that even more than I do not like either of those other two things on their own.And honestly,...

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Board Game Review - Gears of War

As many of my more devoted readers will know (thanks, both of you), I am a huge fan of dungeon crawl games. It's my favorite kind of game. The low-rent combination of a cheesy story and intense simulated bloodshed draws me like a mosquito to a bug-zapper. And this is why, when I read through the rules for Gears of War, I knew I was going to like it.I was right, in case you were wondering. I did like it. I liked it a whole hell of a lot. But the most...

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Expansion Review - Time to Fly

Generally speaking, a game expansion is supposed to make the original better. That is the goal, usually - add some play options, inject more depth, provide a little more replay value, or just let you play without your pants on (it should be noted that you don't usually need an expansion for that last one, but depending on the crowd, it might help).Evolution, the game from Russian game company Right Games, has a recently released expansion called...

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Card Game Review - Quintis Fontis

Quintis Fontis is not the name of the game I'm reviewing tonight. The actual, full name is 'The Enigma of Leonardo: Quintis Fontis,' which is far too long to type more than once. For the rest of this review, I will call it Queer Font, which is not the name either. That is actually a computer typeface that prefers the company of fonts of the same gender. So never mind, we'll stick with Quintis Fontis.Quintis Fontis is kind of like an expansion, but...

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Board Game Review - Deadwood

I don't really believe in kharma, aside from that stupid 'my kharma ran over your dogma' bumper sticker, and then it's just because it's worth a giggle. But if I did believe in kharma, I would say that it was out to teach me a lesson.My last review, where I discussed Rune Age, had me questioning whether Fantasy Flight was even trying to make good games. And then I go out Saturday and play Deadwood, a recent FFG production, and expected to be very...

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Crappy Game Review - Rune Age

An open letter to Fantasy Flight Games:Are you even trying any more? Have you given up trying to make original games, and just devoted all your time to reprinting stuff that you already know will be popular? Are your game designers even showing up for work? Have you started handing out heroin at company picnics?I ask because I recently played Rune Age, and it is a very sloppy piece of work. It is wonderfully illustrated, of course, but I'm pretty...

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Expansion Review - Quarmageddon

Have you been enjoying Quarriors half-a-week? I know I have! Mostly because I only had to write two reviews, and I got to play Quarriors a bunch of times. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.To finish off Quarriors half-a-week (which, seriously, is just two reviews), I'm going to review Quarmageddon, because it's the only other expansion for Quarriors I haven't reviewed yet, and if I reviewed a different game, I would have chosen a really ridiculous...

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Get 'Em Here First - Drake's Flames Shirts!

I've been talking about doing this for a while now, and it's about time I actually followed through. Inspired by the big holiday celebrating our nation's independence, I grabbed some American tradition with both hands, and spent some time on the thing that made this country what it is today - capitalism.In order to make a more perfectly horrible website even more offensive, I've created some shirts that will be certain to earn you some odd stares...

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Expansion Review - Rise of the Demons

It's Quarriors week! Because I have Quarriors expansions to review. I already reviewed Quarriors, so that only leaves two expansions, which means that Quarriors week is only going to last until Wednesday, and then I'll have to write something else for Friday.So it's Quarriors half-a-week!The first feature of Quarriors half-a-week is Rise of the Demons, a rather small expansion for Quarriors that really only introduces three new things - a new spell,...

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